Organize Series Grouping FAQ

What is this?

Organize Series groups posts together in series. Organize Series Grouping gives the ability to put series together in groups!

Umm…so of what use is that?

One of the common case uses I’ve heard from people requesting this feature is the following: Say you are using your blog to write a book over a bunch of posts. The posts in each series are chapters in a book (chapter 1 is a post in a book). This way people can easily navigate through the different chapters. What if, however, the book is actually part of a series of books. In this case you’d want a way to present the Books as a part of a group. Aha! This is where Organize Series Grouping would come in to solve the problem.

Why not just use categories?

That is actually something I often recommended to people when they requested this feature. How this plugin differs from the default usage of categories however is it gives you the ability to group series together using a special taxonomy created just for series. Pretty nifty actually.

So, how many “groups” can a series belong to?

Oh, this is another cool thing. Series can belong to AS MANY GROUPS as you want them to!

Is it hard to use?

At this point, it is extremely easy to add series to groups. You can either do it when creating a series OR you can use the “Quick Edit” feature on the “Manage Series” page and check off the “groups” that the Series belongs to. There is also a “Manage Series Groups” page for adding, editing, and deleting existing series groups.

When it comes to displaying the series in their groups and laying out the information there is a little bit more work involved as of the latest version. Inside the “organize-series-grouping” folder is a file labeled “orgseries-grouping-template-tags.php”. Within this file are all the various tags that you can use to call and output the various Series Grouping data. At the moment, if you are familiar with the WordPress theme system and basic php skills you should have no problem with displaying the grouping data. However, it will be a bit challenging for someone looking for something right out of the box.

Don’t worry though, we still aren’t done with developing Organize Series Grouping, and as with all addons here on OrganizeSeries.com we are always working to improve them and make them easier to use. We’re working on widgets, automatic group information, template pages etc. When you purchase this addon you will receive all the updates along with access to usage docs for the length of your subscription.

I’ve been waiting for something like this for a while but I’m not sure I’ll be able to figure out how to use it on my own…what can I do?

We recommend that you purchase the Basic Support package that we offer along with this addon. With the Basic Support package you gain access to the forums where you will get excellent help with implementing the plugin on your site. For addons that are still not quite where we’d like them in the “ease of use” category we amp up the response to questions about using them.

So why release something if it’s not quite “easy to use” yet?

Here’s the thing. The phrase “easy to use” is relative. To someone who doesn’t code, or isn’t a developer, “easy to use” is a plugin that can be activated and just works with minimal to no opening of theme files etc. However, to someone who does code, or is a developer, “easy to use” means it’s something that they can activate and can find what they need to do what they want to quickly (with options for extending the usage). The thing is, some addons we will release a little bit sooner then normal because of the “hotness” factor. In other words it’s something that has been requested over and over again by users (usually developers requesting features that they can add to client sites). We’d rather get it out and give you the ability to use it and continue to work on improving it for those who don’t code than not release it at all.

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9 comments

Hi KZ,
Sorry for the delay in replying, we’re probably in different time zones. As outlined in the FAQ, Organize Series Grouping is more complicated than the other addons to get displaying the way you want. The normal taxonomy structure in permalinks (ie. blogaddress.com/grouping/name-of-group) does NOT work out of the box because of the complexity involved with the groups. As outlined above, there is a file provided that you can use as a base template to understand how to display the groups.

Ordinarily, I wouldn’t release (or sell) a complex plugin like this but numerous developers requested it and I’ve made it available for that reason. Eventually, I do plan on making it easier to use for the average user but for now, it definitely does require some basic PHP knowledge and understanding WordPress themes to implement fully.

You mentioned in your other comment that you are considering buying Organize Series Multiples. It is a LOT easier to use and you definitely will not have the same experience you had with Organize Series Grouping.

Thanks for your fast reply, but I am afraid I have not enough knownlegde in php programming and WordPress themes topics to able to post the series groups tabel of content on the post and on the widgets.
Please let me have further materials in order to learn how should I use those information.
I always learn with pleasure.

At this point the table of contents Organize Series widget does not show groups. It may be something that will be added in a future version but for now the functionality is not there. It can be done but would have to be custom coded.

hi!!
I want to buy this add-on. Can you please redirect me to an example of this add-on as I am not really sure that it would meet my requirements.
Also can you please tell me whether Yoast plugin would be compatible with it, or do I need to buy the SEO add-on as well??